


Reflections

by blynninja



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Female pronouns for Pidge, Gen, Other, finding matt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2016-08-24
Packaged: 2018-08-09 21:29:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7818010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blynninja/pseuds/blynninja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shiro reflects on Matt and Katie a little.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reflections

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not entirely sure where this came from, but it happened.  
> I hate titles. Might change this one eventually.

The last time Shiro had seen Katie Holt, she’d been staring at him from the photograph Matt had pulled from his pocket, the day they discovered the prisoners were to become Gladiators. That had also been the day Shiro had injured Matt to keep him safe from the fighting.

He’d seen the photo many times on their mission and during their subsequent capture, as Matt and Sam liked to pull it out once in a while and reminisce about home.

“Shiro,” Matt had said quietly, looking him straight in the eye, “if anything happens to me and Dad—”

Shiro had flinched and gripped Matt’s arm, interrupting, “You can’t think that way, Matt!”

“Takashi,” Matt had declared, his gaze stern, and Shiro had sighed, ceasing his protest. Matt had only called him by his true first name if he was being very serious.

“If Dad and I don’t make it, and you do, find Katie for us. Tell her and Mom we love them, and keep Katie safe.”

Matt’s voice had broken, and Shiro had gripped his shoulder, hoping to reassure his friend with the physical contact.

He hadn’t seen Matt that emotional through their whole journey, and it had nearly broken his heart.

“Promise me, Takashi,” Matt had requested, ignoring the tears trickling down his face. 

“Promise me!”

“I-I promise, Matt,” Shiro had replied, determined to do whatever he could to keep Matt and Sam safe and help them get home to Katie.

x

The first time Shiro truly sees Katie Holt in person, she’s dressed as a boy and wearing Matt’s glasses, and he wonders how he didn’t see it when they met in the desert. She could be Matt’s twin.

Instead he sees the resemblance when she shouts that the Commander and Matt are her family and she’s not giving up on them, and Shiro flashes back to his mission with Sam and Matt, and Matt’s desperate plea for him to keep Katie safe.

A switch is flipped in his head and Shiro begins paying a little closer attention to Pidge’s whereabouts and activities, seeking her out when she wanders off alone seeming upset and noting just how strong she is.

Matt had never said she wasn’t, had only asked him to protect her, and Shiro wanted to be able to tell Matt that his little sister could protect herself just fine. But still, he watched out for her, and he knew she noticed that he was doing it.

She never asked why, but her hand always twitched toward the pocket he knew held the photograph she so dearly cherished any time Shiro became “overprotective,” to quote Lance.

But he really couldn’t help it. Pidge was the youngest, the smallest, and the most easily distracted of the team (besides perhaps Coran), and he had a promise to keep.

x

The next time he sees Matt, it’s months after Team Voltron’s first few missions, and they’ve freed over a dozen more planets from Zarkon and the Galra.

They’ve located a planet that Pidge’s intel says is likely a work camp, and Pidge herself is cautiously optimistic that it’s the one Matt and Sam were sent to.

They’ve taken out all the guards and machinery, and are in the process of freeing the prisoners, when Shiro spots him.

His leg must never have healed exactly right, and Shiro winces at the limp he’d caused in his determination to keep Matt safe.

But it’s Matt, and he’s stunned to see Shiro and the others, but races for Shiro anyway, crushing him in a hug.

“Shiro!” Matt cries as Shiro hugs him back, waving frantically at Pidge to get her to move her feet and come greet her brother.

She’s standing, frozen, several feet away, fists clenched and face scrunched up in a way that tells Shiro she’s trying not to cry.

Hunk pauses in herding the other freed prisoners to the castle-ship and gently prods Pidge in the ribs, grinning at her and gesturing in Shiro’s direction.

Matt has stopped hugging him and turned to see what he’s looking at, and Shiro sees the moment he recognizes Pidge.

“K-Katie?” he asks, disbelief and awe behind the question.

Pidge blinks at the name, nearly flinches, and Matt rushes to hug her, both Holts crying openly as they reunite after so long apart.

Hunk joins Shiro with a smile, and Lance grins at them as he finishes helping the last couple of prisoners to the ship. Even Keith looks a bit emotional, to Shiro’s surprise.

When they’ve finished crying, Pidge asks quietly, “Where’s Dad?”

Matt flinches, his explanation bitter, “The Galra figured out he was a scientist and put him on one of their ships to help with their ‘experiments’.”

Pidge scowls and Lance picks that moment to jump in and declare, “Hey, we found your brother, didn’t we, Pidge?”

“‘Pidge’?” Matt repeats, an eyebrow arcing as Pidge turns to scowl at Lance.

“And who are these guys, anyway?” Matt asks, gesturing to the others.

Pidge sighs, resigning herself to making the introductions.

“You know Shiro. But this is Keith, Lance, Hunk, Allura, and Coran. Lance and Hunk and I were a team at the Garrison. Now we’ve all become a team out here.”

“The most awesome team ever!” Lance crows, spreading his arms wide.

Pidge shoves her glasses up her nose even though they don't need it, a habit Shiro now recognizes as a nervous tick of sorts, and gestures behind Matt to the castle-ship.

“We can explain it all on the way out of this sector of the galaxy.”

“Quite right, quite right!” Coran agrees, herding the paladins and Matt toward Allura and the ship, where they begin the task of finding places for everyone to sleep and exchanging stories of the last many months.

x

When Pidge walks into the dining room the next morning, the glasses are gone and she’s the Katie that Shiro remembers from Matt’s stories, only more determined than ever to find her father.

Matt sits down beside her, eyeing the green breakfast goop curiously as Lance and Keith bicker over something or other as usual.

“So you guys fly…robot lions…and save the universe,” Matt summarizes suddenly, looking around the table.

Everyone pauses in their conversations for a moment to look at him, and then Lance grins.

“Yeah we do! And we’re _awesome_! You wanna watch how we form Voltron???”

Matt smiles. “I’d like to see the Lions individually first, if you guys don’t mind. Katie tells me they’re pretty cool by themselves.”

Lance beams. “Mine’s the coolest. Get it? Because it can shoot ice beams?”

Shiro just shakes his head, smiling as he listens to his fellow paladins brag about their Lions.

When his gaze reaches Pidge, he notes that she looks a little stand-off-ish, like she doesn’t think they should be laughing while they still have her father to find.

He catches her eye and inclines his head toward her brother, hoping to remind her that they’ve found one Holt, so they’ll find the other soon, too.

Pidge shrugs back and gives him a small smile, which Shiro counts as a win.

“Hey, why don’t we let Pidge show Matt the Green Lion first, and we can help Coran clean up?” he suggests, interrupting Lance’s description of his Lion’s awesomeness.

Lance whines for a moment, but shuts up when Shiro levels a glare at him.

“Okay, we’ll help Coran in the kitchen,” Lance concedes with a sigh.

“Have fun being nerds, nerds,” he calls to Matt and Pidge, waving as he passes them.

Pidge bristles for a second but relaxes as soon as Matt sets a hand on her shoulder.

Shiro smiles as he passes them, ruffling Pidge’s hair and clasping a hand over Matt’s shoulder for just a moment before he heads for the kitchen to supervise the competition of clean up that Lance and Keith have undoubtedly begun.


End file.
